Tokyo: Japan’s former men’s singles World No. 1 Kento Momota told Japanese media that he is determined to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics despite strong challenges from other young Japanese players.
“I want to stand and compete on that court one more time!” said Momota.
After the retirement of Lee Chong Wei and Lin Dan, Momota was the undisputed king of men’s singles. However, his career has gone into free fall since suffering a serious car accident on Jan 13, 2020, hours after winning the Malaysia Masters.
According to Badminton World Federation (BWF), each country may enter a maximum of two players in the men’s and women’s singles if they are ranked within the top sixteen of the “Race to Paris” ranking list, respectively. Momota is currently ranked fourth among the Japanese men’s singles players, after World No. 5 Kodai Naraoka, World No. 12 Kenta Nishimoto, and World No. 15 Kanta Tsuneyama.
“I have to get better. If I improve, the overall level of the Japanese team will also improve. I hope to achieve that goal,” said Momota.
After losing to Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo of Indonesia 15-21, 20-22 in the first round of the Japan Open last year, he spent about a week at his parent’s house in Kagawa without touching a badminton racket.
“At that time, I thought of retiring from badminton,” revealed Momota.
Momota who will turn 29 on September 1 this year, told Japanese media that one day, he watched a video of himself competing in elementary and in his high school year, and he suddenly rediscovered and re-fueled himself with passion for badminton.
“After seeing my past self, I told myself I am not giving up and I need to stick to my goal.”
“Right now, I can laugh and tell you that I am enjoying the game.”
“Even if I can’t make it to the Paris Olympics, I can at least say to myself, I tried and I gave my best.”
